November 14, 2008
Federal agency to look into DISD's false SSN practice
3:45 PM Fri, Nov 14, 2008
Tawnell Hobbs, dallasnews.com
LINK

The Social Security Administration has decided to look into DISD's practice of issuing fake social security numbers to foreign citizens to determine if a formal investigation is needed.

If you missed the story, click here.

Wes Davis, social security spokesman in Dallas, said today that the review would look at whether there was any criminal intent by the Dallas Independent School District and if the issue is something that the U.S. Attorney's office would be interested in prosecuting. He said he's not heard of any other school districts issuing false social security numbers.

Do you all know of anyone who has been affected by this practice?

Stay tuned for more...

LEXISNEXIS
November 14, 2008 Friday
FIRST EDITION
DISD ignored ID rule Fake Social Security numbers were used to expedite bilingual hiring
TAWNELL D. HOBBS, Staff Writer thobbs@dallasnews.com

Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.

Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.

The practice was described in an internal report issued in September by the district's investigative office, which looked into the matter after receiving a tip. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the fake numbers in 2004 and told DISD then that the practice "was illegal."

It's unclear how long DISD had been issuing the phony numbers, and district officials didn't know Thursday how many had been given out. But the investigative report and interviews with DISD employees indicate the practice went on for several years before it was discontinued this past summer.

DISD human resources chief Kim Olson, who came to the district in 2007, said that she learned about the false numbers this past summer around the time the district's investigative unit was looking into them and that she put a stop to the practice.

"There's no way we should be doing that kind of stuff," Ms. Olson said. "Even if your intention is good to help employees get paid, you can't use inappropriate procedures to do that."

Stopgap approach

The investigative report, obtained by The News through a records request, found "that the inappropriate procedure of assigning false SSNs has been systemic for several years" within DISD's alternative certification program, which prepares new teachers for state certification when they don't have traditional credentials.

A call Thursday to DISD's alternative certification office was not returned. In recent years, DISD has hired people from various countries, including Mexico and Spain, to deal with a shortage of bilingual teachers.

The fake numbers were assigned as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process, the report says. The numbers were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced.

The investigation found no indication that the fake numbers were provided to the Teacher Retirement System, the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration.

However, according to the report, a sampling of several fake numbers showed that they had been included in a July quarterly report sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.

Also, when investigators reviewed a sampling of personnel files, they learned that the fake numbers were entered on Department of Homeland Security and IRS forms. The forms are not transmitted outside the district but are made available to the appropriate federal agency upon request.

In July, the district discovered that 26 of the false numbers were in use after matching DISD employee Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration database. The numbers were already being used in Pennsylvania. DISD officials did not know Thursday whether the practice had caused problems for anyone holding the legitimate numbers.

The district's investigative unit, called the Office of Professional Responsibility, began looking into the fake numbers after the Texas Education Agency's division of educator investigations advised the unit in July that it had discovered the district issuing false numbers in 2004.

That year, the TEA division became aware of the practice when DISD faxed copies of about 100 new Social Security Administration cards for foreign citizens - most of whom had been assigned district-issued numbers - and asked TEA to replace the old numbers, according to the investigative report. The state office told DISD at the time that it's illegal to make up Social Security numbers and pass them off as legitimate, the report says.

'A mess'

Doug Phillips, TEA's director of investigations and fingerprinting, said his office believed the district had stopped the practice because there was no evidence that it continued. He said Thursday that he didn't know which laws forbid issuing fake Social Security numbers.

"We just knew it looked bad and smelled bad," Mr. Phillips said. "That was the first time we'd ever heard of that one."

Mr. Phillips said it created "a mess" in a state database. He said teacher applicants who don't have a Social Security number can receive a temporary identification number, which begins with a "P," from TEA until they get one from the federal government.

The DISD-issued Social Security numbers began with "200" - a prefix assigned to people in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Phillips' office noted that many ended with sequential numbers.

The investigative report also found that the district hasn't been turning in "new hire" forms to the Texas attorney general's office, which uses the information to find parents who haven't paid child support. Failure to provide the forms to the attorney general can result in a $25 fine for each employee. The district doesn't know yet whether it will have to pay any fines.

Ms. Olson said new processes have been put in place to address problems noted in the report, including making crosschecks with the Social Security Administration.

"You can't just arbitrarily issue Social Security numbers," she said. "Even if your intention is good, it's not legal."

How the process worked

Here's how the Dallas school district's false Social Security number process worked:

-Foreign educators on visas were assigned false Social Security numbers to get them on DISD's payroll.

-The foreign employees were instructed to obtain Social Security numbers from the Social Security Administration and report them to the district.

-Once employees received the real numbers, the district entered those numbers in place of the fake ones in a computerized management system.

-The fake numbers were supposed to be used temporarily until real numbers were in place. But some of the fake numbers wound up being sent to the Texas Education Agency when DISD asked TEA to conduct background checks on new hires. Those numbers stayed in the system if DISD didn't replace them with real Social Security numbers obtained by the employees.

Many fear teachers from abroad will be favored as DISD cuts jobs
By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH, The Dallas Morning News, October 16, 2008
kunmuth@dallasnews.com
LINK

Dallas ISD teachers are angry about layoffs. And some are wondering whether bilingual education teachers recruited from abroad will keep their jobs, while American teachers are cut.

A DISD layoff list obtained by The Dallas Morning News includes six bilingual education teachers but includes no indication of whether they are foreign recruits or U.S. citizens.

In comments on the DISD blog operated by The News, visitors express fears that they may lose their jobs while foreign Spanish-speaking teachers keep theirs.

A blog comment from someone identified as "outraged" reflects the sentiment: "Tenured employees get 'RIFed' and inexperienced bilingual employees, many of whom are not even citizens, are left untouched. Somebody needs to explain to me how this can happen in America."

The answer is complicated.

School district administrators consider bilingual teachers, along with math and science teachers, a highly valuable commodity.

Texas colleges and universities don't produce enough bilingual education teachers. So, to close that gap, DISD and many other urban school districts with a lot of Spanish-speaking students recruit teachers from countries such as Mexico. School districts are under pressure to comply with state law that requires bilingual education. And they are under pressure to improve student test scores, which is easier when students can understand what their teachers say.

Students with limited proficiency in English make up 34 percent of the DISD's enrollment, or 53,785 students.

Ray de los Santos, district director for LULAC, said bilingual educators should not become scapegoats blamed for budget problems.

"We're seeing a nativist response," he said. "I understand it, especially in these troubled times. But I want to emphasize that for the betterment of our community we need to keep the focus on our bilingual and ESL students."

ESL, or English as second language, is another instructional method used mostly for older public school students with limited English skills.

Another comment on the DISD blog reflects the hostility some feel toward the new teachers recruited from other countries: "Why was superintendent Michael Hinojosa allowed by the board to go outside the United States to displace American citizen, English speaking teachers who have devoted their professional career to DISD?"

According to the district, 346 bilingual teachers are working on H-1B visas, out of 1,980 bilingual teachers. The visas are for skilled foreign workers in fields in which there are shortages of American-born workers. DISD also recruited many Puerto Rican teachers, who are U.S. citizens.

DISD chief human development officer Kim Olson said where a teacher comes from is not a factor in making cuts.

"We don't look at nationality; we look at certification and seniority," she said.

Dallas ISD's central office numbers not out of line to state
By HOLLY K. HACKER, The Dallas Morning News, October 16, 2008
LINK

As the Dallas school system lays off hundreds of teachers to save money, some critics say more cuts should come from the central office rather than the classrooms.

This is a school district with a 250-page organizational chart, with supervisors for everything from concrete to pest control.

But the state deems Dallas just fine for its size, with administrative spending and staffing in line with other big Texas school districts.

Bureaucratic bloat, it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder.

The Dallas Independent School District is shedding about 1,100 jobs to help cover a projected $84 million deficit. The cuts include 250 campus support staff, such as teacher aides and clerks; 164 central office jobs; and 50 assistant principals and other campus administrators.

With half the cuts coming from the teaching ranks, critics have argued on blogs and at school board meetings that educators shouldn't get pink slips in a budget crisis they didn't create.

"They should cut anyone but teachers!" one person wrote on The Dallas Morning News' DISD blog this month. "Cut those people at the top," another wrote.

District officials say they have reduced the staffing levels at district headquarters, and not just in this latest round of layoffs.

"There's been a concerted effort to reduce the size of the central administration," DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said, with more than 250 cuts from Ross Avenue in the last year. District officials did not have the prior number of central office positions available.

Measuring administrative bloat, or a lack thereof, in public education is tricky. Numbers can vary across years and reporting agencies. In general, though, DISD's statistics seem in line with other large school districts.

Based on 2005-06 federal data, central office administrators make up about 1 percent of DISD's workforce, on par with other large U.S. districts. Just over half of DISD's employees are teachers, also in line with the national average for big districts.

Numbers from the Texas Education Agency show that DISD is fairly comparable with other large Texas districts. Central office administrators make up 1.2 percent of DISD's workforce, campus administrators another 2.6 percent. Those figures, from the 2007-08 school year, are slightly lower in Houston ISD, but a bit higher in Fort Worth and Arlington ISDs.

DISD also had the greatest share of teachers in its workforce – 55 percent, according to the TEA figures.

TEA rates districts on their finances, including how much they spend on administration. By the state standard for large districts, DISD does not spend too much.

As for the ratio of students to teachers, DISD has an enviable ratio of 14-to-1. In Houston, it's close to 17 students per teacher.

With these latest cuts and others in the last year, the percentage of campus-based employees should increase slightly, Mr. Dahlander said.

So what's the best balance of teachers and supervisors, be they at a campus or the central office?

"It is a hard question to answer, just because there's a debate as to what the best practices are," said Randall Reback, a professor who studies the economics of education at Columbia University's Barnard College.

Parents, students worry about Dallas ISD teacher layoffs today

01:29 PM CDT on Thursday, October 16, 2008

BY BLANCA CANTÚ and DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News
bcantu@dallasnews.com
dmcgraw@dallasnews.com

Hours before several hundred Dallas school teachers were to be handed pink slips, apprehensive parents and students were complaining about the lack of information and worrying about the future of their campuses.

"If they get rid of the teachers, what are we going to do?" asked Maria Huerta, a parent of three children at San Jacinto Elementary School. "If there are no teachers, there is no school."

Up to 450 teachers will be terminated this afternoon in the Dallas Independent School District’s efforts to close a projected $84 million budget shortfall. The district also plans to cut up to 50 non-teaching positions today. Most schools in the district will be touched, according to a preliminary list of teacher layoffs obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

The news has left many unanswered questions for parents: Would their child's teacher remain? Would their child's class size be affected? And most importantly, who would teach the children?

San Jacinto Elementary in Pleasant Grove was one of the schools expected to be hardest hit with nine positions.

Ms. Huerta said her children learned about the layoffs last week and asked why the district was getting rid of teachers. Ms. Huerta said the school has provided little information. "They haven't told us anything," she said.

Parent Silvia Solis said she didn't know whether her 8-year-old daughter's third-grade teacher would be spared but she thought that teachers should not lose their jobs.

"It's going to affect the kids because the classes are going to be fuller, and they are not going to get the same attention as they do now," she said.

Ms. Solis said she planned to learn more about the layoffs at a school meeting between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dallas ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said in an e-mail that all schools were holding parent conferences, which had been scheduled months in advance.

Teachers and staff getting breakfast at a McDonald’s near San Jacinto declined to comment on the pending layoffs.

At nearby John B. Hood Middle School, parent Miguel Lopez said the principal told him eight teachers would be laid off today. He said he and his 12-year-old son haven't really discussed the layoffs.

But he said the uncertainty at the schools was just one more thing worrying him, along with the high gas prices and the faltering economy.

At Skyline High School, students said the campus has been buzzing about impending terminations, but that students didn't know what would happen to their teachers or classes.

"We can't tell what is going to happen because we don't know how they are doing it," senior Quenetha Bell said. "It's hard for the teachers and the students."

Quenetha said she believes the district’s financial crisis has led to higher prices for students to participate in clubs and senior activities such as prom.

"Who is going to bail us out?" she asked.

Sophomore Marcus Brown said teachers have talked about pending layoffs in class, but students are still in the dark. "We should know what they know," he said. "We go here too."

Melvin Harper, a parent of a sophomore at Skyline, said the district should have tried harder to avoid the layoffs.

“This is going to hurt our students,” he said. “I am not pleased. There are good teachers here. It is a slap in their face to lay them off.”

Several miles away near the DeSoto border, Helen Henderson was rushing to work at Hulcy Middle School. "I think it is very cruel what the district is doing, making others take blame," she said.

DISD officials had planned to conduct the layoffs Wednesday. But flaws were discovered in the layoff plan when administrators met with principals Tuesday and compared lists of affected employees. District officials confirmed Wednesday evening that layoffs will occur today.

A majority of the teachers on the layoff list are working under probationary contracts or have job performance issues. DISD already has trimmed 213 non-contract workers and about 200 vacant positions in an effort to eliminate about 1,100 jobs throughout the district.

Aimee Bolender, president of Alliance-AFT teachers association, has said employee morale is the lowest she’s seen.

“It’s beyond description it’s so bad,” she said. “I just hope that once we get through this process we can begin healing. It has really eroded confidence in employees.”

Staff writers Kent Fischer, Tawnell Hobbs and Caitlin Myers contributed to this story.